Attending the Academy as one of twelve students was an uplifting and thought-provoking experience.

Twelve students, one teacher and six days were the fundamental ingredients of the musical feast that was the Järvi Winter Academy 2013. The setting was Pärnu, a charming and beautiful Estonian resort town gracefully edged by the Baltic sea; a place where in Soviet times the great and the good – most notably David Oistrakh – would come and relax and breathe the lovely, balmy sea air. The air was still lovely when the 12 of us were visiting and learning, but with temperatures reaching 25 degrees below Celsius the climate was a little less forgiving. The same cannot be said of the Pärnu City Orchestra who were amiability itself, forgiving the one or two slips that may have occurred as we conductors attempted to face the challenge – what does it mean to conduct?.